A regional approach to understanding farmer suicide rates in Queensland

Arnautovska, Urška; McPhedran, Samara; Leo, Diego De

doi:10.1007/s00127-013-0777-9

Cited by 42 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Studies conducted after the 1980s farm crisis found that farmers in the United States were much more likely to commit suicide than were other groups of men [18,19]. Recent reports of increasing rates of depression and suicide among farmers [16,17,27] suggest that this may be a continuing trend. In addition, poor mental health can present problems for farmers, who are already at higher risk for job-related accidents than are workers in other occupations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the past 30 years, a number of research studies have examined the role that stressors play in the lives of farmers and the relationship between stressors and various health outcomes, including mental health problems [11][12][13][14], suicide [15][16][17][18], injuries [19][20], working conditions [21], job satisfaction [22], and general well-being [2,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Human stress reactions have a common physiological basis, but individuals manifest stress differently depending on their situation [8].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Cross-Sectional Study of Stressors Among Farmers in Eastern North Carolina

Kearney

Rafferty

Hendricks

et al. 2014

North Carolina Medical Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cross-Sectional Study of Stressors Among Farmers in Eastern North Carolina

Kearney

Rafferty

Hendricks

et al. 2014

North Carolina Medical Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…However, given the diverse nature of rural communities, the generalisability of findings to farmers in other parts of Australia is limited. A larger study of farmer suicide by Arnautovska and colleagues [20,27] incorporating Queensland and NSW suggested that there is not only state differences but also significant geographic variability of suicide rates across regions within states. Further to this point, the extant literature also offers little guidance as to how farming-related suicide might differ from suicide in rural communities more broadly.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicide in Rural Australia: Are Farming-Related Suicides Different?

Kennedy

Adams

Dwyer

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rural Australians experience a range of health inequities-including higher rates of suicide-when compared to the general population. This retrospective cohort study compares demographic characteristics and suicide death circumstances of farming-and non-farming-related suicides in rural Victoria with the aim of: (a) exploring the contributing factors to farming-related suicide in Australia's largest agricultural producing state; and (b) examining whether farming-related suicides differ from suicide in rural communities. Farming-related suicide deaths were more likely to: (a) be employed at the time of death (52.6% vs. 37.7%, OR = 1.84, 95% CIs 1.28-2.64); and, (b) have died through use of a firearm (30.1% vs. 8.7%, OR = 4.51, 95% CIs 2.97-6.92). However, farming-related suicides were less likely to (a) have a diagnosed mental illness (36.1% vs. 46.1%, OR=0.66, 95% CIs 0.46-0.96) and, (b) have received mental health support more than six weeks prior to death (39.8% vs. 50.0%, OR = 0.66, 95% CIs 0.46-0.95). A range of suicide prevention strategies need adopting across all segments of the rural population irrespective of farming status. However, data from farming-related suicides highlight the need for targeted firearm-related suicide prevention measures and appropriate, tailored and accessible support services to support health, well-being and safety for members of farming communities.The factors contributing to health inequities-including suicide risk and accidental death-are likely to reflect this heterogeneity and require detailed exploration to support any specific prevention and intervention strategies.Farmers are vital for maintaining the production of food and fibre in an environment of ever-increasing populations and market demand. In Australia-as in many other Western nations-agricultural production is increasingly recognised as a vulnerable industry. Farmers are ageing, and facing increasing technological and mechanical demands, in a fluctuating global marketplace with mounting climate uncertainty [6][7][8]. Given that the majority of Australian farms remain family owned and operated [9], this occupational vulnerability is likely to extend beyond those defined as farmers to include family members living and helping out on farms.Australia's farmers have been identified as at risk of psychological distress [10,11] and heightened rates of suicide [12][13][14][15], in the absence of any clear evidence of higher rates of diagnosed mental illness [16]. Poor mental health and suicide risk in farming have been attributed to a complex range of interconnected cultural, environmental, geographical, social and psychological risk factors [11,[17][18][19][20]. These factors include poor access to support services [21,22], an unsustainable work ethic [23], uncertainty and lack of control in farming [23], social disconnection [17,19], poor business profitability [24], acclimatisation to risk taking [25] and access to means [14]. Qualitative research suggests there may be two distinct pathways to suicide for Australia's fa...

show abstract

“…Suicide in this group has been attributed to increased mental illness, family conflict and long-term or chronic illness [4][5][6] . Over the past 25 years, suicide in Australian rural communities has been widely researched; however, the focus has been predominantly on younger males 7,8 and all aged farming populations [9][10][11][12][13] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%